Why Trust In God? - Find Peace and Question Our Assumptions plus Meet the Host in this Relaunch Episode

Hello! Today, begins the re-launch of my podcast as "Getting Personal with God". I share the process and what you'll like about it. We also start exploring whether you or I have any assumptions about God. (Spoiler alert... we do :)

I'm super excited to start this journey with you! I know that God is actually excited about this podcast because He is excited about YOU and wants to know you more intimately. This is one way to help connect you with Him more often.  Of course, God knows everything, and it is His plan for you to be on the earth at this time, but how much we let Him in is up to us.

If I didn't sense how much God wants to talk with you, work with you, and walk with you, it could be quite vain of me to dare say God is excited about this podcast. However, He numbers the hairs on our heads, so He is pretty focused on us. He doesn't want us to be lonely, to feel shame or guilt, or to be unable to hear His voice. Plus, He likes us both, and He was the one prompting me to begin.

So today starts a fun journey to walk closer with God and get our eyes opened to the wonderful plans He has for us.  

Please subscribe so that we can meet again!  Lenora

Please share this podcast with friends and post a review on your podcast app!

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
If you're excited about something, you call your
best friend and you want to tellthem the news.
Or if you're stressed, you'llcall someone who will help you.
And if you're not calling Godand you're not telling God and
sharing these things, then thatmeans we just have a
dysfunctional belief about himas our friend.
Do you love God but forget topray sometimes or feel guilty

(00:20):
instead of enjoying hispresence?
I get it, I've been there.
I know how unsatisfying timewith God can feel if we believe
he's distant and busy.
I'm Lenora, a mom, Jesus lover,and former international
trainer.
If you're ready to feel closerwith God without fear or
pressure, have a greater abilityto receive from him, and desire

(00:40):
more confidence to make animpact with your life, well, get
some coffee or something, andlet's talk.
Hey, if you're carrying stressand want support with prayer, I
wrote a book to help you.
It's called 100 Prayers,Releasing 100 Cares.
It's full of real stories,scripture, and 100, yes, 100
prayers for about every part oflife.

(01:02):
A link for the book is in theshow notes.
I really think you'll love it.
Some have said it is the bestprayer book they've ever had.
This is the first episode of myrebranded podcast, and the new
title is called Getting PersonalWith God.
And I'm super excited and kindof nervous.
Uh, you know, there are 40episodes that are still

(01:23):
available from my previous workfrom 2020 to 2024, because
there's some wonderfulconversations with authors,
executives, CEOs, griefspecialists, psychologists, and
Christian leaders.
And so I want to leave themthere because they're still
valuable and some pretty amazingpeople.
But personally, I felt like Ishould start my podcast again.

(01:45):
I left it live because I justdidn't feel like I should let it
go.
But I know the effort that itis.
So I was really praying andsaying, God, what am I going to
focus on?
And as I've been in thiswrestling process of nailing it
down, it came down to, do Ireally get to do what I really
want to do?
Which is sorry, that seems likea weird question, but I think

(02:08):
sometimes we run from the thingwe care about the most.
And for me, it's aboutrelationship with God.
Now, I'm curious about a lot ofthings, and I've taught a lot of
things.
I had an incredibly wonderfulopportunities in the past to
teach the Bible, as well as Itaught in the corporate sector

(02:28):
for 15 years, and I ran aprogram for young people and for
veterans and amazing, amazingthings that I still love and am
very proud of.
I taught things likepresentation skills, negotiation
skills, fierce conversations,which is communication skills,
uh, process managementfundamentals.
I loved a 12-month leadershipcourse, a supervisor curriculum

(02:52):
that went over six months andmany other things.
And I'm I love business and Ilove what we call ministry,
although I think they crossover.
Anybody who's got a decentministry better be sharp at some
decent basic business.
And anyone who's got a goodbusiness cares about people and

(03:12):
has integrity.
So there's so much to love aboutboth.
But at the core, what I love themost is God's word, teaching the
Bible.
So why I'm doing this podcast,that's what this first episode
is about.
Is in fact I woke up oncebecause I've been thinking about
this so much.
I woke up with the thought, yourfather wants to know you, your

(03:36):
heavenly father, the God whomade the universe, the God who
made you and me, wants apersonal relationship.
So getting personal with God isbottom line what this is all
about.
There's so many skills we canhave, and I'm all for building
those.
But nothing matters more thanthe relationship with God.

(03:56):
At the same time, at times I'vebeen a person who's been very
bored with reading my Bible orbored with my time with God.
And of course, I didn't want tosay that too often out loud or
something, but I know what it'slike to feel like, yeah, I
should, but I'm busy.
Or is it really going to make adifference?
I grew up in a Christian familyand we had all of our own

(04:19):
issues.
So it was far from perfect.
But I did, and I'm very gratefulthat I got to hear God's voice
at a young age, meaning it wasnormal for me as a little kid.
I knew if it was God talking tome.
Not that it happened a lot, buthe's so real.
But this podcast is going to beabout exactly what it's titled,

(04:40):
Getting Personal with God,meaning let's get to know him
better.
We have a lot of assumptionsabout God.
So, what is this podcast about?
Well, number one, I think youlove God.
You probably wouldn't click onthis if you didn't have a desire
or a polling, a drawing to knowGod better, or you already love
him, but you you want to becloser, and yet you struggle

(05:03):
like every human does, or like Idon't know anybody in my friends
or other Christian friends whohaven't wrestled with, oh, am I
praying enough?
Or am I actually feeling God'spresence?
Do I hear his voice?
Did I hear his voice?
Or was that too much pizza?
You know, I hope you get mypoint there.
But we all have our struggles.
And I have discovered over timethat so many times the reasons

(05:27):
we do struggle is because wehave a lot of assumptions about
God.
Based on however you grew up,however I grew up, we assume we
know God and we're running ourrace, as scripture talks about,
run your race, but we don'trealize we're running off of a
lot of assumptions.
And it makes our Christian walkmore difficult.

(05:48):
And I like things being easier.
And I am excited myself abouthow amazing God is, how much
better he is than I used to givehim credit for, even though I
basically thought he was a goodGod.
But this is going to be allabout digging in sometimes with
word studies, sometimes withstories and various things that

(06:10):
are going to help us get to knowGod better.
And the prayer that will alwaysbe prayed, at least over this
podcast, if not in the podcast,is God open the eyes of our
understanding to the knowledgeof you.
That's from Ephesians, one of myfavorite books in the Bible.
But we want to get to know Godbetter so that we enjoy our time

(06:32):
with Him.
One of my strengths is I like totalk.
One of my weaknesses is I liketo talk.
So let me get make sure I'mbeing focused here.
So, what is this podcast reallygoing to be about?
I know it's titled GettingPersonal with God, but here's
three things we'll be focusingon.
One about God.
How good is he really?

(06:53):
I mean, I think you're herebecause you love God.
I know I love God, but how welldo we really know him?
I am convinced, I know and haveexperienced relationship with
God will exceed all expectationsor imaginations, the more you
discover about who he actuallyis, what he's like.
I actually right now feel hisexcitement.
He wants to know you so much.

(07:15):
If you've ex called on Jesus,you've accepted Jesus Christ, he
lives within you.
And he wants to know you.
I love the book of Ephesians.
Read the first chapter ofEphesians over and over.
It's the it's in the NewTestament.
And uh get different versions ifyou need to.
Read it on a phone app where youcan get different versions

(07:38):
because you'll understand alittle bit better that God made
everything like a baby room sothat he could put us in it, so
he could be our father.
He calls himself father, he'sthe beginning of fatherhood, and
that's what he loves to be, andhe wants to know you.

(08:01):
But I don't know if you havetainted uh thoughts about what
does a father mean?
I don't know what yourexperience was, and so sometimes
we we don't love that thought,but he's not like a human in our
ability to have failures, and weall have those failures or
flaws, but he is better than youcould possibly imagine.

(08:22):
And he desperately I don't knowif there's a better word for
that, but he wants to laugh withyou, he wants to play with you.
Do you know that all my lifeuntil a couple a year or two
ago, it had never occurred to methat God was fun.
He told me once I made himlaugh, or he said actually what
the word was was God thinksyou're funny.

(08:43):
I'll tell you that storysometime, but he is fun, he is
powerful, he is protective.
Read first Corinthians um 13verses four through eight.
God is love.
The Bible says he is love, andthen let's define love though.
It's not about like I love pizzatype of love, or I love

(09:06):
chocolate or something.
Love is patient, love is kind,love is not self-seeking.
A lot of us have confuseddefinitions of love.
So that's another thing we'regonna do in discovering what is
God really like.
Sometimes we will take a wordand just look at that in
different verses and say, here'swhat God's actually like, and

(09:26):
get rid of the assumption ofwhat we've thought he's like,
and no wonder we don't want topray.
Because, I mean, if you'reexcited about something, you'll
call your best friend and youwant to tell him the news.
Or if you're stressed, you'llcall someone who will help you.
And if you're not calling Godand you're not telling God and
sharing these things, then thatmeans we just have a

(09:46):
dysfunctional belief about himas our friend.
And it's not about being bad orgood, but we're gonna do a lot
of discovery about how good hereally is, what he's really
like, how he can be trusted, andall those things.
And I'm telling you, it's a gamechanger.
Another thing we're gonna focuson is what does God actually

(10:07):
think about me?
What does he think about not me,Lenora?
Although I'll share stories, butwhat does he think about you?
What does he think about us?
I mean, so many people think Godis distant and busy.
I mean, if you had a parent thatwas always busy and didn't have
time for you, you probablyassume God is the same way and
don't even know you assume that.

(10:27):
But we'll talk about what doeshe actually think about you?
Again, read Ephesians chapterone, at least start there.
And then another thing we'll betalking about is how can I
become bigger than the problemsI face?
How can I become more powerfuland deal with those because of
who God is and who he says I am?

(10:48):
I should be able to kick theseproblems butt.
You really should.
Sorry if that offended anybody,but I want us to talk about how
do we get bigger than ourproblems, how do we walk in the
promises God has has laid out inthe Bible.
There are so many promises.
In fact, the Bible itself iscalled the Old Testament and New

(11:09):
Testament, right?
Really, the words are oldcovenant and new covenant.
Quickest way to talk about whatis a covenant is the closest
representative is marriage.
Except God isn't a big uh justyou know exits if things get
rough.
He has no prenuptial agreements,and I suppose there's times to
do that on earth, but with God,he doesn't have a prenup.

(11:33):
He says, I want you as my child.
I want you.
Uh, the church is called thebody of Christ.
I want you as my bride, as mywhole part of my whole self.
All these different ways Godtalks about being one with us.
And we're going to bediscovering what does this

(11:54):
really mean?
How good is this really?
You know, the gospel, the wordthe gospel is supposed to mean
amazing news.
I mean, it's something you runand tell everybody.
Well, if knowing Jesus Christisn't um something amazing, you
just don't understand what youhave yet.
You just don't understand who heis yet and who you are.

(12:15):
So that's what this podcast isgoing to be about.
And I hope you join me on thisjourney and have fun.
And I'm going to need commentsfrom you.
And I will want input to hearwhat you want to hear about,
what do you want to talk about?
And of course, I'll always wantyou to uh give me a great review
so more people can join thisjourney with us, a review on the

(12:35):
podcast app.
But um, thank you for evenlistening to this first episode.
I want to wrap this up, but Iwant to end this with a prayer.
Father, you are so excited toknow us better, to have us know
you better.
Again, I'm asking you open theeyes of our understanding to the
knowledge of you.

(12:56):
Help us be personal with you, bevulnerable with you, tell you
our craziest thoughts, our worstthoughts, our best thoughts, and
walk with you, walk with you asa friend and as a father.
And thank you.
Because I feel your love so muchright now.
And I know more way more than Ido.

(13:18):
You want whoever's listening tothis to know you are reaching
out to them.
You want to know them and youwant to know them intimately,
and they will get good athearing your voice in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
All right, thanks for listening.
Hey, my new friend.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.

(13:38):
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share this with someone who
needs to hear this or may wantto join you on this journey with
this podcast?
And please take 30 seconds andleave a quick review for this
show on Apple Podcasts andsubscribe so you won't miss an
episode.
It makes me happy to know thispodcast is helping you, so
definitely let me know what youwant to hear or what impacts

(14:02):
you.
And remember, a link to get theprayer book I mentioned earlier,
100 Prayers to release 100cares, is in the show notes.
Thank you for listening.
I'll meet you back here onMonday for another episode.
Until then, be kind to you.